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"Hey, you ready, Sofia?" I called from the front door.
"Almost! Have you seen my flip flops?"
"Next to the sofa. Come on! You really don't want to be late!"
"Whatever," Sofia grumbled. I smiled. Of course she didn't want to go. This was all my idea, after all, and she was not thrilled. Neither was I, but I wasn't going to let her know that. She trudged out of our room, walked into her flip flops, and followed me out the door.
"I don't see why I need to get a tutor," she muttered as we got into the car. "Why can't you help me instead?" She gave me a pleading look, the same look she gave me every time she complained about having to find and setting up a meeting with a tutor. She was resistant, but I was determined.
"As I've told you every time you ask, every single person I helped with calculus got absolutely nothing out of my explanations. I'd feel terrible if you didn't do well because I can't explain math." Sofia sighed loudly. "Look, just give this guy a chance."
"But what if he doesn't help at all?" Sofia whined. Sheesh. It was just a tutor.
"If he doesn't help, then..." I considered my options. Getting her to find another tutor would be beyond hopeless, and I didn't want to fight with her over something so silly. "Then I guess I can try to tutor you."
"Okay!" Sofia grinned. "I'll give him a try, but if I still don't get it, I'll tell you right away so you can start helping me right away." She started singing along with my CD, preventing me from reminding her that she couldn't just fake incomprehension. But it didn't really matter.
I parked in the lot next to the library, and we walked down to the basement, where tables sat under a sky light 4 levels above. Sofia sat at one of the tables in the middle, under direct sunlight. I chose a corner table and set up my computer so I could see Sofia's table over the top. I wanted to keep an eye on her, if only to make sure she was at least trying to understand what the tutor was saying. I plugged headphones into the computer as Sofia took out her books and leafed through them to the appropriate pages. We were only a few minutes early, so I didn't bother making a new music playlist. I picked an old impromptu one and started it. I had the volume on the headphones low so I could listen to the tutor over my music. I figured he'd be pretty decent, since he was with the university tutoring service, but you never know.
At exactly 1 o'clock, he showed up. He was tall, with golden brown hair and a kind face. I could tell that he was the kind of guy who would strike up a conversation with the person next to him in class or on the bus, just to be friendly. I watched as he introduced himself to Sofia and shook her hand. He sat next to her, both of them facing me. Sofia looked at me as he sat, and I gave her a quick thumbs-up. For the first few minutes, I listened carefully as he questioned her about what she was learning and what she didn't understand. I became less attentive as he began to work through a problem with her. I checked my email before beginning my physics homework.
A while later, I sat back from the computer and stretched, having just finished a particularly long and complex problem. Somehow I'd managed to solve it, though I wasn't sure I could ever repeat the process. A Nickelback song had started, and I bobbed my head along with it for a moment before glancing up to check on Sofia. It looked like she was doing fine, and from the look on her face, she was understanding everything. At first glance, everything seemed great.
Then I noticed how close he was to her. When they had started, there had been a good 8 inches between them. Now, he was much closer, his shoulder almost touching hers, and she wasn't the one who had moved. I grit my teeth as a wave of jealously coursed through me. It could just be incidental, I told myself. But I just couldn't buy it. Maybe, if Sofia hadn't been attractive, I could have convinced myself, but his face was giving it away. I mulled over what I could do about it without actually getting up and moving his chair away--which I was sorely tempted to do. As I brainstormed, I tuned into my music again. Nickelback was a great band, really. There was this one song I really liked, about a guy and his girlfriend at a bar.
And that was it! I flipped through my song list until I came across the right one. I watched Sofia and her tutor for a moment as the song began. She was working on a problem, and just before the song got to my favorite part, she finished and showed him. He smiled at her and put his hand on hers as he started to tell her that she had done a good job and that she really seemed to be getting the material. Irritated, I pulled my headphones out of the jack. Luckily, I'd left my main volume up very high from watching TV on it earlier.
"Is that your hand on my girlfriend?" Nickelback's Next Contestant blared out of my computer, and he nearly leaped out of his seat. He looked up and saw me for the first time. I grinned at him as Chad Kroeger sang "I wish you'd do it again." Sofia giggled. Heck yes.
"Whoops, my bad," I said sweetly, hitting the mute button. I gave him another smile. He scooted his chair away from the table, stood up, and told Sofia he was glad he had been able to help her. Before she could thank him, he quickly walked away. Sofia gave me a patronizing look; I just grinned back.
~+~+~+~+~+~
As we were going to bed that night, Sofia brought up the incident.
"I really wish you hadn't scared off my tutor. He was nice."
"A little too nice, if you ask me," I muttered. Sofia smiled at me.
"You really didn't need to do anything. I was about to tell him I wasn't interested. He was hitting on me a little the entire time."
"Yea, but it was fun. I don't get to be intimidating or protective very often. I couldn't help myself. I'm sorry for scaring the wonderful tutor." I gave her puppy dog eyes.
"That's okay. You can make up for it by being my tutor for the rest of the semester."
"You're evil."
"Am not. It's your fault anyway." She grinned.
"You're absolutely right." I sighed. "I guess I do have to tutor you. If you do well with it, you can win prizes."
"Oooo, prizes? Like what?" she asked, eyes aglow.
I pulled her close to me. "Let me show you."
END
^_^;
I've had this idea for ages, and it wasn't well done, but there it is =)
 nepie · Fri May 01, 2009 @ 04:05am · 0 Comments |
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